A wide assortment of tool and accessory holders have been proposed for holding various articles in a desired position or location. For example, in the field of fishing rod holders, many designs may be found in the prior art for resting a fishing rod in a device worn by the user, to free his hands for purposes such as baiting a hook. U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,466 (Webber) discloses a leather fishing rod holder which attaches to the user's belt and provides a closed metal ring at the rear, into which the handle of the rod may be inserted behind the reel, and an upwardly open hook at the front for supporting a part of the rod forward of the reel. Such devices, however, are relatively awkward to use and are limited in their application. Other fishing rod holders, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,846,129 (O'Brien) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,914 (Pothetes) may be somewhat less awkward to use, but are difficult to attach and are unduly complicated and difficult to manufacture.
Numerous other devices have been proposed for holding various articles in a generally upwardly facing clip attached to a belt or other vertical supporting surface, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,971 (Goertzen; belt-mounted holder for an archer's bow), U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,072 (Jones; belt-mounted hammer holster), U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,248 (Pommenville; golfbag-mounted accessory holder for scorecards and other golf accessories) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,589,126 (Payne; belt-mounted golf club holder). However, Goertzen and Jones require the user to remove his belt in order to attach these holders, and Pommenville and Payne are designed so the device may be accidentally dislodged from its attachment point when the article being held is lifted out of its clip. Moreover, none of these designs lend themselves to smooth, fluid motions for inserting and removing the articles to be held.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved belt-mounted holder and method of use which addresses these and other deficiencies in prior art designs.